Algerian court sentences Liberian to death for ‘spying for Israel’

PARIS––A unnamed Liberian citizen accused by the Algerian government for working for the Israelite government has been sentenced to death.

An Algerian court has sentenced a Liberian national (unnamed) to death for “spying for Israel,” the Algeria Press Service reported on Tuesday.

The court has deliberately refused to provide the name of the Liberian and other sub-Sahara Africans held hostage by the Algerian regime, according to Jones Nhinson Williams, a Liberian public policy professional based in the United States.

“It is time sub-Sahara African nations take the barbaric and tyrannical Islamic regimes in North Africa to task for their racism and evil acts against black Africans,” Williams added.

Williams said he promised to embarass the Algerian government before the United Nations and the international community. He urges the Liberian government and President George Manneh Weah to cease all diplomatic relations and contacts with the Algerian government and Algeria with immediate effect until the unnamed Liberian citizen in question who is being maligned and all sub-Sahara Africans held hostage and in servitude in Algeria are released without any precondition.

Williams also calls on ECOWAS nations to take seriously the actions of the racist attitutde of north African countries against sub-Sahara Africans. Adding, “as long as Libya did it with inpunity, more racist North African Muslim nations will continue to do so,” he noted.

The case of the unnamed Liberian was heard by the Ghardaia Court, 600 km south of the capital Algiers, where six other individuals of different sub-Saharan nationalities were sentenced to 10 years in prison term with fines of up to 20 million Algerian dinars (26,000 U.S. dollars).

All of the defendants were charged with spying, conspiracy to seriously undermine Algeria’s security, and glorifying terrorism.

All the accused pleaded not guilty, claiming that they entered Algeria in order to reach Europe, the report said.

The sub-Sahara Africans were arrested in January 2016 by security services in downtown Ghardaia amid a violent sectarian strife in the region.

Sources and eyewitnesses say the Algerian government is using the “pretext” of spying to indefinitely detain and put in servitude several sub-Sahara Africans in the country so as to avoid the backlash similar to what occurred in Libya.

Globe Afrique reached the Algeria mission in Washington, DC and at the United Nations to no avail. More details to follow.